In today's information saturated environments, such as the Internet, a local or remote computer network, or any combination of the Internet and such networks, it is often difficult for a user to track the potentially large quantities and varieties of interesting communications and information. Such communications and information include, for example, email, instant messaging, file transfers, local weather, appointments, schedules, personal contacts, statistical information, file status, stock quotes, sports scores, local traffic, or any other type of communications or information. This problem becomes particularly acute where the communications and/or information are dynamic, such that rapid, numerous, or large changes to the communications status or channels, or in the information results in out of date communications and/or information that is often relatively useless to a user.
In response to this problem, several conventional schemes have been developed to assist users in keeping track of specific communications or information without requiring a user to manually search or manually check for updates to the communications or information each time the user wants to examine the communications or information. However, such schemes are typically limited by what types of communications or information can be tracked or displayed, by the manner in which the communications or information is accessed or otherwise provided to the user, or by the inability to facilitate sharing of the communications or information between users. Further, conventional schemes that have attempted to address these problems tend to be limited by an inability to provide a single interface that allows for concurrent information retrieval, display or access in combination with communications and communication access points in a dynamic integrated environment. Consequently, users are often left with cluttered displays, which provide access or interaction with either particular types of communications, or with specific information, but not with both communications and information access and interaction in an integrated environment.
Several conventional messaging type schemes have attempted to address these problems. However, such schemes typically provide large windows that take up substantial amounts of screen space. Further, such schemes, while providing some communications capabilities along with some information gathering or display capabilities, tend to separate the communications capabilities from the information capabilities via one or more tabs or the like. Consequently, particular information cannot be easily shared or communicated from within the applications provided by these schemes. Further, such schemes become unwieldy as the amount of information tracked by a user increases, and as the number of communications contacts maintained by the user increases. In particular, as the amount of information increases, the user is forced to scroll through large amounts of data or communications channels.
For example, several conventional messaging type schemes provide capabilities for keeping track of information, such as stock quotes, weather, news, or other information via the Internet or some other local or remote network, or some combination thereof. Further these conventional schemes also provide for communications access such as, text instant messaging, file transfer, email, etc., via one of a number of communications channels for contacts in one or more groups of contacts. Consequently, a user is able to keep track of information and communicate with particular entities. Unfortunately, with these schemes, the user cannot do both simultaneously. He is forced to tab between the different types of information and the communications capabilities. Therefore, the user is unable to share data observed via the information tabs with contacts in the communications tab unless the user manually saves or copies the information, switches tabs, then manually creates a message to a particular contact, and either attaches or pastes the information to that message.
Further, because these conventional schemes tend to have numerous tabs, they require a fairly large window in order to display the information and associated controls or icons. Unfortunately, such windows become buried under other application windows when the user is using other applications. Consequently, the user is often forced to interrupt the flow of work to switch between windows. This problem has been addressed by some schemes that provide an option to maintain an open message window. While this scheme solves the problem of burying the messaging window, the messaging window then occludes a potentially large part of any other open application window. While it is possible to manually resize the different application windows and to move them around the screen in an attempt to give each window its own space, such manual user intervention can be both time consuming and aggravating for the typical user.
At least one conventional scheme has attempted to address some of the aforementioned problems. This scheme provides an application that allows a user to customize at least one icon in a scrollable strip along one edge of a computer display device. This scheme provides iconized links to particular information sources and uses conventional techniques to populate each customized icon with information retrieved from the information sources. However, this scheme has several important limitations.
While this scheme provides for gathering and providing information to a user, it fails to provide the level of communications capabilities offered by messaging schemes. For example, this scheme does not provide for initiating communication via an icon, so while an icon may provide a communication status, such as a number of received messages, it does not provide for responding to such messages. Further, this scheme does not provide for nesting or otherwise organizing groups of icons in order to aggregate multiple icons. In other words, opening the window associated with one icon does not provide access to further levels of grouped icons. Consequently, it is difficult to organize icons where a large number of icons are used. In addition, the icons of this scheme are not easily transportable and no real mechanism exists for transferring icons between users. Instead, users are required to obtain the icons from an application used for managing the icons. Other limitations of this scheme include a lack of an ability to resize the window containing the scrollable strip used for displaying the icons. Further, with this scheme, if a user adds too many items, another row or strip is automatically created within the window, even if that row has only one icon, thus resulting in a waste of valuable display space.
A related scheme allows a user to customize a scrolling ticker type display window to provide continuously updated scrolling information from a predefined set of available information. While useful, this scheme is more limited than the prior scheme for several reasons. First, the set of information that is available to this scheme is predefined. Thus, if the information type and source are not listed as options, they are not available. However, users are provided with limited control over certain information options, such as, for example, specific stock symbols for stock quotes, choosing areas or topics of news to generate an automatic alert, or choosing particular cities to generate a weather report. Another limitation is that users are not able to add or edit information sources, such as by modifying the icons as described above. Furthermore, since the ticker scrolls, there is no guarantee that all the information of interest will be visually available at any given time. Specifically, if the information of interest to a user is not currently visible, the user must wait until the information scrolls into view. Consequently, this scheme can become very distracting as the user is forced to watch the display constantly. Further, because the scrolling ticker is in constant motion, it is in itself potentially very distracting to a user as it creates a persistent motion in the user's peripheral vision. Finally, the communications capability of this scheme is minimal in comparison to the aforementioned messaging schemes.
Still other schemes for providing custom information views or displays involve a technique known as “web scraping.” In general, such schemes allow a user to specify particular portions of unique Internet Web pages, i.e., source web pages, to be displayed on a single customized web page. Consequently, while such schemes provide for information retrieval and display, they do not provide for communications capability.
For example, one web scraping scheme allows users to “clip” relevant data and content from various Internet web sites and pull it all together in one dynamic browser page, called a “view.” This view is effectively a composite web page. Thus, as any of the source web pages are changed, the composite web page is automatically updated. This scheme allows users to edit views in a variety of ways, such as by adding, deleting and rearranging data elements and personalizing the view with the user's own inputs. In addition, this scheme provides a method for transferring views between users. However, this scheme suffers from many of the same basic limitations described above with respect to the aforementioned schemes. Such limitations include an inability to nest or organize views and arrange for a plurality of views to be displayed simultaneously. Also, as mentioned above, such schemes typically provide minimal communications or messaging capabilities.
The web scraping technique also requires views to be opened in a window that occupies a substantial portion of a display device. In addition, the content of typical web pages is typically not designed to minimize the area in which information is displayed, resulting in an inefficient use of screen space. Further, if a portion of the web page that is scraped or otherwise clipped from an existing web page includes an animation, the web page can be distracting if it's in the user's peripheral vision. Finally, because the web scraping technique is a patchwork of distinct elements, the composite web page resulting from this technique is typically an unappealing jumble of disparate elements that were never visually designed to appear together on a single page.
In some instances, a user may want to be aware of real-time information and notifications. Conventional user interface systems do not provide a solution that adequately addresses both of these needs, while also providing the user with flexibility, ease of use, and choice in configuration.
Even further, users frequently need to use controls or other application interfaces that are independent of their current task. In those cases, a user has to switch from a current task window to another window or application. For example, if a user was using a word processing package and wanted to change a compact disk track or other such task, the user would need to access the controls of a media player application program, which typically is displayed in a different window. An example of this is the WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER in an environment such as the Window Operating System.
A new system and process are needed for automatically providing dynamic communication access and information awareness in an interactive peripheral display without requiring a user to tab between communications channels or information types. Further, such a system and process should not require a user to choose from a predefined list of communication access points and information categories or sources, but instead should allow for creation and customization of communications access points and information sources. Such communications access points should include communications channels for contacting other entities, and the display of information from multiple applications. The information sources should include any desired information elements, such as, for example, specific information types or information categories. In addition, this system and process should allow users to organize any desired information sources into any desired number of groups or nested groups. Also, these groups or nested groups should be capable of being expanded by the user to allow the user to view nested groups or communication access points or information elements within these groups or nested groups. Finally, this system and process should reduce clutter and increase consistency in the user display, while providing live information, and a platform for frequently used controls.